Monthly Archives: August 2014

It turns out that Microsoft Excel can be more efficient than soul searching. A few days ago I received a general email sent to Athabasca University staff by the interim president, Peter MacKinnon. It was a progress report on the new Student Success Centre model for changing how students access services (including tutors like me) at AU. This is not a call centre. Everyone will tell you that, and it is quite a touchy subject. It may be the place you have to call (or email) to be directed to the service you need, including your tutor, and there might be tracking numbers involved (I’m still sketchy on the details), and your call (or email) might be logged, and then referred to the appropriate person or department… but it is not a call centre because telephones will not be the primary communication technology. So there.

I have a few problems with this. First of all, calling it the Student Success Centre sounds like a cynical branding exercise, even if it isn’t. Second, as far as I can tell (again, details are sketchy), my students will no longer be able to contact me directly. They will contact the [not a call] centre where someone will decide if it is really me that they need to talk to, or if someone else will do. If it is determined that the student does, indeed, need to contact me, I will be notified by the system to contact that student. The system will follow these transactions and apparently generate some statistics so appropriate oversight can be exercised and I can be presented with numbers to motivate my performance.

So why is this change happening? Because it will cost less. Cutting costs is done with fanatical zeal these days, and like fanatical zeal, it often does not involve consideration of the big picture. Some years hence, people will look at our gutted institutions and say, “Oops. I guess we needed that after all.” It seems that those responsible for the financial upkeep of public institutions like universities have forgotten the reasons for creating those institutions in the first place.

I am getting to Excel and soul searching. As you may have guessed, this [not a call] centre will cost less mostly because tutors will be paid less. At present, AU tutors are paid in two ways. One is a flat rate based on the number of students a tutor is assigned. This is called block pay. The second way is based on the number of assignments and exams that a tutor has graded. There are also allowances for computer use, phone, and internet expenses. The block pay is meant to cover the time I spend communicating with students, and the related work. If I were to have a month where I graded no assignments or exams, then my wages would consist of the block pay, plus allowances. Under the new system, block pay will be eliminated. I’ve read that tutors will be paid for each interaction with a student, but to my knowledge, AU has not officially commented on exactly how this will work… likely an indication that they don’t expect it to win over any tutors.

Update (13 June 2016): Here is a list of items that Academic Experts will be paid to do.

Ok, almost to Excel and soul searching. The email from Peter MacKinnon raised my ire because it reflected many of the attitudes toward tutors that I’ve heard expressed elsewhere. I’m hesitant to post an internal email, but if you read through the comments on this post about the [not a call] centre by Tony Bates, you’ll get the idea. I would draw your attention in particular to the comments of Professor Rory McGreal of Athabasca University (who is apparently not averse to the term “call centre”):

In the call centre, they will reach a professional immediately. This professional, unlike the tutor, will have training in the most common questions, queries, concerns that student have regarding administration, schedules, programme requirements, etc.

This quote is helpful because now you won’t mistake a tutor for a professional.

Let’s try another:

The call centre model is especially designed to provide students with the response they need as soon as possible. The previous tutor model allowed for a reasonable call back time of 48hrs. This is no longer acceptable. Students demand the response they need when they need it.

The 48 hour response time exists because tutors are not paid enough to have tutoring as their only employment. It allows for flexibility so that it is possible to manage both jobs. I’m not sure if this means the 48 hours will be changed to “immediately, dammit!” or if it is meant to imply that being told your tutor will contact you counts as a response. Either way, this strikes me as being extremely out of touch with what the reality is for tutors… and it makes students sound like brats.

I crunched some numbers to see what a worst-case scenario might look like, such as a very slow month for grading. You might think this scenario would translate to a month of free time, but it doesn’t. There are a number of activities I engage in to assist my students, that aren’t represented in the pay scheme. Also, I have to keep an eye on email and make sure I respond within the required time frame (either 48 hours or immediately, dammit, I’m not sure which). Finally, I have to keep my schedule sufficiently open and not go too far from home so that I can take care of any tasks that might arise. This last point in particular amounts to a very definite opportunity cost.

The result of these calculations was laughable. I could make more money dog-walking (I like dogs… that wouldn’t be too bad), or sewing sock monkeys, or selling pressed flowers on Etsy. So, while I might otherwise have done some soul searching about my place in an organization where the people calling the shots clearly view me with contempt, Excel made it pretty easy to see the point at which it just wouldn’t be worth it to stay. We’ll call that the self-respect threshold, and I’ll be keeping a very close eye on it.